Official photo of Commissioner Emily Johnson Piper (Photo: Minnesota Department of Human Services).
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Minnesota filed a lawsuit on Thursday in Minnesota State Court challenging the current ban on using covering transition-related surgery expenses for transgender people.
The ACLU, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of Evan Thomas and the LGBT rights group OutFront Minnesota, is suing Emily Johnson Piper in her role as the Commissioner of Minnesota’s Department of Human Services, and demanding that the state repeal the coverage exclusions in both Medical Assistance, the state’s Medicaid program, and MinnesotaCare, the state’s program for lower-income residents without access to employee-sponsored health insurance. The ACLU argues that not only is the current exclusions are both discriminatory against transgender people, and have no basis in medical science.
“For many transgender people, transition-related surgery is a medical necessity and can sometimes be a matter of life and death,” Joshua Block, an attorney with the ACLU’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Project. “Transgender Minnesotans — like everyone else — should be able to receive adequate health care based on medical standards of care.”
Under current Minnesota law, all transition-related surgical care is denied coverage, regardless of whether it is medically necessary for treating a person’s gender dysphoria. However, the same treatments are required to be covered under the federal Medicare program and under all private health insurance plans regulated by the state of Minnesota.
“Every major medical organization has recognized that policies banning coverage for medically necessary transition care have no basis in modern medical science,” Block continued. “Minnesota’s statute is a historical relic based purely on disapproval of transgender people.”
In addition to Medicare, 10 other states and the District of Columbia currently provide coverage for transition-related surgical care through their public health insurance or Medicaid programs.
Thomas, the lead plaintiff in the case, is currently on Medical Assistance and has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. After fighting depression, Thomas was able to begin hormone therapy and legally changed his name and gender earlier this year. But he is still being denied coverage for medically necessary transition-related surgery.
“A weight was lifted when I first began my gender transition and realized I didn’t have to pretend to be a woman anymore,” Thomas said in a statement. “Being denied surgical treatment is harmful to my health and well-being every day I’m forced to live in this body.”
The U.S. Air Force has issued new guidance, in two memos signed by interim assistant secretary for manpower and reserve affairs Brian Scarlett, detailing how transgender Airmen and Guardians will be involuntarily separated -- and denying them any chance to contest the decision.
Citing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's memo announcing compliance with President Donald Trump's executive order seeking to ban transgender service members, an Aug. 12 memo states that any Airman or Guardian with a diagnosis, history, or symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria will be denied a waiver and involuntarily separated.
For the second time, a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit from University of Wyoming sorority members who challenged the admission of a transgender woman, arguing that she did not meet the definition of the word "woman."
"Having considered the issues presented (again), we find that the majority of the claims must be dismissed on the grounds that this Court still may not interfere with the sorority's contractually valid interpretation of its own bylaws," U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson wrote in his ruling.
The case began in 2023, when six members of the University of Wyoming’s Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter sued the sorority for admitting Artemis Langford, a transgender woman, and allowing her to use the campus house’s common areas -- though not live there -- according to Wyoming Public Media.
Austin police are investigating whether an assault on a transgender woman and a male bystander at Barton Springs, a popular Austin swimming spot, was a hate crime. The incident occurred on July 26, when three men began flirting with the woman’s friends and then allegedly harassed her after she approached them.
"They said something along the lines of 'I don't support that lifestyle,' while pointing at me, which upset all three of us," said the transgender woman, whose name is being withheld for safety and privacy reasons, in an interview with the Houston Chronicle.
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